Krakow, Poland – 2 September 2019 – In the beautiful frame of Krakow, Poland, the 2019 Congress of the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) gathered more than 3500 healthcare professionals from 91 countries on the theme “Nutrition – A Highway to Health”.

Every year the ESPEN-ONCA-MNI Joint Session gathers experts to discuss ways to deliver better nutritional care to patients. The President of the Polish clinical nutrition society hosting this edition of the ESPEN Congress - Stanislaw Klek - provided a keynote speech on the importance of patients having access to quality medical nutrition support at home.

In the words of Professor Rocco Barazzoni - ESPEN Chairman - “ESPEN works daily and it is fully committed to the goal of supporting quality patient care across all settings, also for patients at home. Year after year the ESPEN Congress offers the opportunity for a full exchange amongst several healthcare professionals and experts on the topic.”

Frank de Man - Executive Director of the European Nutrition Health Alliance - explained how the Optimal Nutritional Care for All (ONCA) campaign supports promoting and implementing the continuum of care, also from hospital to home. Joost Wesseling - ONCA Campaign & Operations Manager - engaged the audience by letting them share good practices on nutritional care with their peers and students to improve and innovate daily practice.

Professor Stephan Bischoff - ESPEN Guidelines Editorial Board Chair - highlighted the importance of evidence-based recommendations to advance care. The cooperation with patients’ organisations has recently advanced to develop lay versions of the guidelines intended for patients.

The patient’s perspective came from Marek Lichota - Chair of the Polish patient association “Appetite for Life” - who unfolded the most important aspects for patients receiving nutritional care at home. He emphasised what are the areas of urgent unmet needs for patients, especially those that are key to improve standards of chronic intestinal failure care.

Fernando Mateus – MNI President - closed the session by presenting the launch of a website dedicated to Home Parenteral Nutrition and announcing the winner of the MNI Grant 2019: the Portuguese PEN society (APNEP) was awarded for its ambitious project on mandatory screening implementation to promote an effective malnutrition diagnosis.

Prof Anibal Marinho - Chair of the Portuguese Association for Clinical Nutrition (APNEP) and also Chair of the Medical Association in Portugal – presented this winning multi-stakeholder project on implementation of nutritional screening and intervention and reminded that Portugal has just adopted law on reimbursement for home enteral nutrition and that it is about to adopt a legal text covering also home parenteral nutrition.

For more information about the ESPEN-ONCA-MNI Joint Session please visit the webpage: https://medicalnutritionindustry.com/news/events/event/espen-onca-mni-jo...

For enquiries you may contact the MNI Secretariat @ secretariat@medicalnutritionindustry.com

ABOUT

ESPEN

ESPEN is the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. The aims of ESPEN are to encourage the rapid diffusion of knowledge and its application in the field of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition or, more broadly, Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. It promotes experimental and clinical research, fosters high ethical standards of practice and investigation, and promotes contact between investigators and clinicians in related fields. More information at: www.espen.org

ONCA

Launched in 2014, the Optimal Nutritional Care for All (ONCA) campaign is a multi-stakeholder initiative to facilitate greater screening for risk of disease-related malnutrition/undernutrition and nutritional care implementation across Europe. The campaign supports national professional societies, associations and patient groups in public health and health care to implement nutritional risk screening and optimal nutritional care in their country. More information at: https://european-nutrition.org

MNI

MNI - The Medical Nutrition International Industry (MNI) is the voice of the medical nutrition industry at international level. MNI gathers companies that offer specialised nutritional solutions and services designed to meet the diverse nutritional needs of patients. We strive to put nutrition at the heart of patient care and we aim at an environment that provides fair access to nutritional care throughout the world. MNI is dedicated to advancing better care through better nutrition, across all ages and healthcare settings. More information at: www.medicalnutritionindustry.com